Frank Vogel wins No. 100 as Pacers coach

Mar. 4, 2013

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Indiana Pacers head coach Frank Vogel calls a play during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Indianapolis. Indiana won 97-92. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) / AP

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Admittedly, 100 is a humble number. For a solid NBA coach, it’s two, maybe two and a half years of good work. But Frank Vogel’s 100 wins, which he earned with the Pacers’ 97-92 victory over the Chicago Bulls, is significant as an early milestone in what promises to be a long and terrific coaching career.

How lucky did the Indiana Pacers get when they plucked the no-name assistant off Jim O’Brien’s 21/2 years ago and made him an interim head coach?

And how fortunate does Vogel feel after starting his career as a Division III point guard at tiny Juniata (Pa.), then heading to Kentucky, where he talked his way into a job as a manager?

“I never could have imagined I would be in this position,’’ Vogel said Sunday. “Just getting the opportunity to be a head coach, that’s so rare. And then to have such a good and ready basketball team, that’s an absolute blessing.’’

The 39-year-old Vogel is a rising star in the business, a come-from-nowhere guy – well, Jersey, actually – who has a chance to be a long-term answer for this franchise. The Pacers were smart enough to extend his contract earlier in the year, and after a chorus line of three- and four-year stays by previous Pacers coaches, Vogel has shown he can be the rarest of all birds: An NBA coach with staying power.

In 21/2 years, his winning percentage is .608, behind only Larry Bird in the history of the franchise.

Once upon a time, Vogel spun a basketball on his toothbrush as a part of David Letterman’s “Stupid Human Tricks.’’ But his greatest trick, came when he reinvigorated a moribund locker room and led the Pacers to a 20-18 finish and a good showing in a series against the Chicago Bulls.

He changed the culture almost overnight, infusing the team with a newfound passion and direction.

“The first thing he did was preach positivity,’’ said Danny Granger, who left Sunday’s game early with knee soreness. “At first, honestly, a lot of people didn’t believe it, but then we started playing the way he wanted us to play. This league is all about confidence and when your coaches expresses confidence in you, it spills over onto the court.

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“A lot of coaches try the tactic of belittling players to get them to play better. Maybe that’s worked in the past, but Frank, if we’re doing something wrong, he’ll get it corrected, but 90 percent of what he says is positive.’’

Nobody benefited more from the O’Brien-to-Vogel change than Roy Hibbert who, by the way, is starting to come out of season-long offensive funk in recent weeks.

“He’s a players’ coach,’’ Hibbert said after a double double (18 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots). “He lets us go out there and have fun, but we take things seriously when we go through practice. But he lets us enjoy more. Now we have a voice in the locker room, which we didn’t have before.’’

Vogel is innately positive – “I’m just built that way,’’ he said – but learned the power of positive thinking while observing Rick Pitino, first at Kentucky and then at Boston. He then took that outlook and learned a ton of X’s and O’s from Jim O’Brien, who he still counts as a mentor and calls an “extraordinary man.’’

So how does he walk the fine line between being relentlessly positive and a hopeless Pollyanna?

“By being real,’’ Vogel said. “I tell our guys all the time I have an image of being an optimist, but really, I’m a realist. When I talk about our belief in this team, my belief is real. When I’m coaching in games or practice, I want to encourage them, but when things are not being done at a high level, you’ve got to challenge them.

“It’s just a matter of being true to who you are. I’m not Bobby Knight. I’m not that kind of coach. When we need to correct things, I do it in a respectful manner.’’

As usual, Vogel is getting no play as a potential Coach of the Year candidate, but he should be in the conversation. With San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich. With Golden State’s Mark Jackson. With the Clippers’ Vinny Del Negro. But he’s got the Pacers four games up in the Central Division, five games up when you factor in the head-to-head tiebreaker. Barring a collapse, the Pacers are going to win the Central Division for the first time since 2003-04 season.

Vogel got No. 100 the hard way, the Pacers hanging on despite the domination of the Bulls’ reserves. The Bulls’ bench out-scored the Pacers 31-8, and yes, this is a long-term concern. Down the stretch, though, David West was David West – a man’s man – hitting every big shot and making every big defensive play.